Video: Shocking [Jack] into submission with High Voltage

Hackaday headquarters has recently been overrun by techno-groupies hanging around outside so we decided to take some measures to discourage that. A word of warning though, if last week’s video ruffled your feathers then you probably shouldn’t watch this one. In this video [Jack] shows you how to create a stun glove using a disposable camera and some leather spikes. To prove that it really works, he intentionally takes a jolt from it courtesy of Hackaday’s security chief [Vlad].

Check out the video after the break.

Like last week’s video, we don’t recommend that you actually try this. This is a weapon and is dangerous by its very nature. As [Jack] attests to in the video, it hurts to get zapped by a device like this. If you are to take anything away from this video, it might be that you should treat disposable cameras with respect if you choose to take one apart.

Like seeing our writers get shocked? Here is a video of [Caleb] being shocked with a Tazer at CES last year.

59 thoughts on “Video: Shocking [Jack] into submission with High Voltage”

I’ll also second that calling this a hack is like calling “Jackass” dramatic art. I love the HaD articles that show cool and novel ways to use or reuse things or that teach a useful technical skill. Watching people/objects getting zapped with high voltage gets old really fast.

We do a little of something for everyone. These fit into our theme going right now that is “high voltage”. I believe the next ones will be much more high-brow dealing with methods of design in CAD possibly.

I found it quite shocking to see that Taser has no problems of tasing a man that already had been restrained, just like so many of its customers like to do.
Why is it that hundreds of people die each year due to their products, but none of them are policemen (or taser salespeople) training with this weapon. Non-lethal is non-lethal, after all?

I must say that i find it “shocking” how careless people are with electricity, and even advertise and encourage it over such a portal.
Firstly, those videos (like already said) get old really fast. Secondly, zapping someone with a flash capacitor is very dangerous. The capacitor holds enough energy to kill a grown person, and in the wrong cirumstances that really could happen.
What if someone has a bad heart? Or a Pacemaker? Or you zap a healthy person just in the right moment when the cardiac valve is in the wrong position?

I remember seeing something like this a few years back, but it was a commercial product. Was basically a stun gun built into a glove. The electrodes were on the thumb and index finger I believe. Made the Vulcan Neck Pinch a reality!

I have the upmost respect for disposable cameras, I was toying with a dismantled one a while back, charging the flash repeatedly. Short story short: I got a jolt which threw my arms straight out to each side. Don’t remeber it beeing too painful, but i was certainly surprised to find it so powerful.

I did it when I was twelve… got a hold of a lot of disposable cameras with flashes, and quickly found out about the 330V that are pumped into the big capacitor. Potential for neat sparks and great shocks. I brought those at school, shocked quite some classmates, then got detention.

I never got detention. Well not till I wired it up to the instructors seat. For some reason he didn’t find it amusing at all when it was him getting zapped, but he had no problem when my target was my classmates. The rest of the class rolled. I never served that detention and still graduated. I think perhaps the horseplay was getting just a touch out of hand.

I can certainly understand your point. Though I don’t agree that it is “ethically and technically questionable”. A little horseplay every now and again is just what the Dr. ordered to keep us young.

While I personally don’t have a problem with this type of post, it does seem to egg on the kind of behavior the powers that be here say they want to avoid.

Technically I suppose it is a ‘hack’ Since that is not what the camera was designed to do. It seems to me that HaD is going for quantity over quality. Which is ok, but it does tend to bring the trolls out of the woodwork and draws non constructive comments.

I still keep an eye on HaD, but lately I have already read many of the posts days earlier from other feeds by the time they make it here, and there are a lot of redundant posts as well. The post yesterday about making the USB to Parallel was decent, though light on process details.

Personally I think HaD has sort of lost it’s way. They want to clean things up, but they want to post the low hanging over ripe fruit. Still every once in a while they come up with a real gem.

I think it is surely a good idea to question the act of producing items that are obviously weapons meant to harm other people.

I’m sure I do not have to elaborate on nuances here. I build the odd trebuchet but this is clearly something else then a fully functional “super hero” stun glove.

The “humorous” presentation and the sheer simplicity of it all also begs the question “Does this appeal to people who’d like to emulate it for actual use?”. I bet, with a large enough audience, it does.

The odds of some dick tying 2 wires to a flash-leed and aiming it at his neighbour is far more likely then the same person building a full blown siege-engine to smash the neighbours house down (although we humans are crazy enough).

Alongside quality, I think it is very reasonable to, at least, question both those standards in this contribution.

We realized that these first videos weren’t for everyone in our audience but in reality none of them will be. My videos will be all over the place. The two most recent ones were riding the high-voltage theme. Next week’s video will be on a totally different topic that is much more advanced. The down side is that it will be less interesting to a general audience so after a few weeks of that, I’ll switch to something fun but not too difficult like this. Hang in there. Eventually I’ll come to something you are interested in.

People know me mostly as a odd-ball out-of-the-box daring authority “cautious” person. Or I hope to think! But I do, alas, know a fair bit of commercialisation and advertising (shame on me).
If you truly knew you’d miss you original target audience with this series, then what was the purpose? Attracted a whole new untapped resource of viewers? Yes,I might imagine! And so this is turning into h(j)acka(ss)day.

for those who have not seen the video,,, you are not missing anything except seeing the had idiot get shocked by a disposable camera… i must admit it was the hilight when he said “Owwww!!” just like a little girl… rotflmao

I would like to suggest that HaD should be for showing people how to do cool things. I understand that because of lawyers and lawsuits and the shallow end of the gene pool that some things are dangerous and you should know what you are doing before trying them. And some things will be beyond the technical capabilities of a lot of us (e.g. almost anything that Jeri does). But if you need to have an overlay on your entire video saying “do not try this at home” while at the same time showing every excruciating detail of cutting and glue and wiring and even peeling off the label of the camera… well maybe you need to rethink why you are posting the video. If it is that dangerous, either show us the end result (I’ll admit, I couldn’t wait to see Jack get shocked) or find a different topic to post about.

I am not advocating that every video be safer than a modern chemistry set. I am saying that the material should be presented clearly, the dangers researched and explained (not just “don’t do this!”) and the focus of the video/write-up on why the hack is useful or interesting and cut out the cheese, the camp, the mohawked “security guard” with a $15 knife in his belt (yes, I own that same knife) and get back to the geeky goodness.

When it is something created by HaD I agree 100%. They should produce something that shows others how to properly research, document, build, and demonstrate a hack.

However, often times HaD is not the creator and merely passing on what has been found elsewhere. In that instance it is completely understandable for HaD to throw on a boiler plate disclaimer and move on down the hack path. They call it natural selection for a reason. One should realize when you might be in over your head or there are dangers present.

Take it for what its worth. My opinion and $4 will get you a cup of Starbucks coffee, so there ya go.

You are right and I should have been more clear initially. HaD produced stuff should IMHO be several notches higher than the average content that other people post. This includes quality of hack (i.e. not crack something open and solder two wires as another poster pointed out), quality of scientific explanation and quality of presentation. And considering that most of the topics I’ve read in the past few months have set the bar pretty high in most or all of those areas it might be better for HaD to stick to user submissions in the short term instead of looking like someone arriving late to their own party.

Why not mount the electronics on the glove? I’m not sure how this is anymore irresponsible than the more powerful devices that have been for sale to the general public for years now. The shock from camera flash will only make weenies cry. Get a taste of modern auto engine ignition power.

In the CES video above, why do they have to resort to political & geographic bashing. I live very near MO and consider myself conservative, yet I very much enjoy reading Hack a Day and other technology related blogs. I don’t sit around watching cows go by or whatever other stereotype you like. Can’t we try to keep things technical and unbiased here?

cool but i will use a external flash module it have a bigger capasator more power and have a test button to fire it
you can pick one 2e hands for a dollar or 5 online
i only think the police dont like a toy like this

ETHICAL? personally i grew up watching G-RATED cartoons FOR KIDS where the _____ shocks the _____ with a hand shocker. and you used to be able to buy those… bak when people did that to other people’s hands as a joke instead of trying to kill then by touching them in the neck or chest. im no expert but i think a shock right where u’d do a vulcan neck pinch MIGHT kill.

then again we live in an era where the FBI arrests and jails for (up to) 10 years a man for putting an inflatable SEX-DOLL in a washroom of a highschool.
TAX DOLLARS and yahoo FTW

This works fine, however the capacitors charging time limits the effectiveness of it.

It would be much more effective to crack open an electric fly swatter and perform the same process, perhaps extend the push switch on a wire for mounting and safety purposes (ie, it’s not constantly on to avoid accidental shocks).

This should provide a pretty constant shock with roughly the same punch, these things sting.

I love that people are complaining about an electric shock when the passive part of the device is a glove WITH SPIKES ON THE FIST! It’s like hooking up an electric heater to a sword, so that in addition to your victim getting a deep, possibly fatal gash, they also get a nasty burn.

Made something like this back when I was in middle school. I had the wires taped to my fingers with electrical tape insulating the back so if I grabbed someone it would shock the hell out of them.
I only got to shock the hell out of myself a few times with it though, and it gave me a few nasty burns as well. I ended up breaking it during it’s first test by shorting it and cooking the wires, which were harvested from an off brand PS1 controller.

if you make a MK II i would suggest puting the terminals (or studs/metal plates) on the fingers instead of the back of the glove for the effect of placeing your fingers/palm on someones arm instead of “Punching them”